January 2014 6 Book Review With Give Me the Money and I’ll Shoot!: Finance Your Factual TV/Film Project (Bloomsbury Publishing, 431 pages, $39.95), author Nicola Lees, who has developed documentaries, docudramas, multiplatform and reality programs for network and cable channels, has attempted to pen the definitive guide to financing documentaries. And aside from a few hiccups — including some rather lengthy and boring stories about how certain documentaries were eventually funded— for the most part, she’s succeeded. While not quite a new Bible for filmmakers embarking upon reality-based projects, Give Me the Money — which introduces and explains a different type of funding opportunity in each chapter — makes a good case for why would-be documentarians ought to at least skim this rather lengthy how-to before seeking the cold hard cash they need to complete their passion projects. The orderly method is perfect for this type of step-by-step guidebook, as it unambiguously breaks down each potential source of funding, describing at length how each one — private equity investors, universities, local or foreign governments,filmfundsorgrantsandevencrowdsourcing websites like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo — would need to be approached, whether they’d need to be repaid, what your obligations to them from a filmmaking standpoint would be and even how to apply for specific funds. And while some of it might seem obvious — whowouldn’t immediately appeal to rich relatives or friends if they had them? — other pieces of advice, such as how exactly to fill out those pesky grant and foundation application forms and why accepting money from organizations that might want to push their agenda instead of yours can be a mistake — could prove invaluable to folks with few industry contacts. But the real pearls ofwisdomthis bookoffers are the little tidbits provided by the many producers, directors and documentary-making insiders who are interviewed in the final third of the tome. For example, for those who’ve already finished filming their subjects, but can’t afford to hire an editor to sculpt the footage into a finished film, it can be very useful to learn about The Edit Center. This New York City institution, which teaches aspiring editors how to use Final Cut Pro, will sometimes use real unfinished projects submitted by desperate filmmakers, notes The Edit Center’s director of Education, Rachel Mills. If you can get your partially-finished film there, you might manage to finish your movie — at no additional cost. Later, producer Lucy Stylianou, of Londonbased television production company Furnace, explains the importance of occasionally bringing in sales agents to make certain pre-sales, as many of those agents have pre-existing relationships with broadcasters, which can save everyone involved both time and money. And Carl Hall of London’s Parthenon Entertainment cautions newbie filmmakers against a practice he refers to as “blanket bombing,” in which they go to festivals like Hot Docs or MIPDoc and simply pitch everyone they see. “If you think of any other business you’d be mad to give away your trade secrets, but a couple of drinks at the conference bar and suddenly you are having off-the-cuff discussions with broadcasters… STOP, THINK, before you pitch,” he says. Other notables interviewed include Elizabeth Radshaw, director of Toronto’s Hot Docs Forum and Market, who believes in helping to educate new documentarians into the doc culture; Mark Starowicz, executive director, Documentary Programming, for Toronto’s Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who stresses the importance of finding the right co-producing partners for your project; and TomZiessen, Public Engagement Advisor, People and Broadcast Grants for London-based global charitable foundation Wellcome Trust, who explains that filmmakers looking for a piece of the £750,000 (U.S.$1,234,000) they spend a year on broadcast, will benefit from specificity. “Applications are often very vague regarding which channels the film is aimed at,” he says. “Even at the earliest stage, we need the filmmaker to say, ‘This is an idea for such-and-such a slot on this channel…’ Clarity is important.” The book’s author, Lees, who’s developed documentaries, docudramas and reality programming for a slew of network and cable channels in both the U.S. and U.K., including the BBC, Discovery, Travel Channel, National Geographic and TLC, and has personally penned more than 370 factual TV program proposals, is a true expert with an easy, breezy writing style that makes Give Me the Moneya quick, fun read. In her introduction, she explains that she titled the book Give Me the Money and I’ll Shoot! “partly because it amused me, but also because it seemed to appropriately express the frustration felt by the growing number of TV producers and independent filmmakers who are desperately trying to get someone to fund their project before they lose access to their story or have to remortgage their house.” Youget the sense that she genuinely cares for the filmmakers frantic to finish their documentaries, and that she knows what it’s like to eat and breathe a project that might never see the light of day. She seems to truly want each and every reader looking to fund their documentaries to be a bonafide success. In her previous book, Greenlit: Developing Factual/Reality TV Ideas from Concept to Pitch, Lees demystifies the TV development and commissioning process. Now, in this new work, she does the same for the funding process, making it crystal clear that procuring the money to pay for everything from cameramen to postproduction editors to airline tickets to festivals is part hard work and part dumb luck. But the most important part, she says, is networking. “If you don’t have an existing relationship with someone who has the means to fund your project it is much more difficult, if not impossible, to get them to part with their cash,” she writes. “Start nurturing relationships with the people you might need to approach for funding long before you actually need to ask for money, whether they be commissioning editors, distributors, or that wealthy uncle you haven’t spoken to for years.” While Lees can’t make those introductions for you, she does tell you the best places to go to meet the types of people who might give you their money so you can get down to the business of shooting. The rest is up to you. LHR Producing documentaries is a question of economics and financing as much as creative ingenuity Looking to Finance a Project? This Book Will Show You How
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